Invaluable tools and services to boost ecommerce operations

Keeping costs down while maximising your audience reach and driving up sales and profits is what every business is about, and it’s as true for those operating in the thriving ecommerce world as it is for bricks-and-mortar firms. Happily for companies selling online, it’s incredibly easy and cost-efficient to do so, especially for those engaged in Magento ecommerce.

So whether you’re thinking about setting up an online store or are already doing so and looking at ways of providing better services and boosting sales, you might like to consider some of the following tools and services that can help to propel your company forward.

First off, let’s acknowledge that not every ecommerce firm is an Amazon behemoth. Many are small – tiny, even – and can be standalone companies in their own right or offshoots of more traditional operations. That means there’s not a lot of resources available to deliver services to your customers – starting with the essential element that is customer service, which is as necessary online as in the real world. Don’t provide it and you’ll just drive people away.

Enter Zendesk, a cloud-based customer service solution that’s incredibly low-cost (starting from just $1 a month) and can handle customer queries on your behalf via the web, email, social media, telephone or even chat. More than 45,000 companies are currently using this powerful service to deliver their online customer services. Find out more, or start a free trial at http://zendesk.com.

Now let’s turn to optimizing your ecommerce site; services from an aptly named company called Optimizely promise to do exactly that. The firm – located at http://www.optimizely.com – helps to increase the rate of conversions, and therefore revenue, as well as improve all-important engagement with existing and potential customers. It has a totally free starter plan as well as enterprise and custom options.

Well worth considering, of course, is Google Adwords (http://www.google.com/adwords), which can certainly help to snare new customers; it’s based on pay per click, you can set your own budget, and it will get you real results. There’s no need to go overboard and bog yourself down with all manner of ecommerce tools, however – just stick to the basics and you’ll get ahead, and a good Magento developer can help you along the way.